Translating and Interpreting Service

Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) National

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) provides the TIS National interpreting service for people who do not speak English and for the English speakers who need to communicate with them.

Their interpreters speak more than 160 languages and dialects. TIS National is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any person or organisation in Australia requiring interpreting services.

Many organisations are eligible for free services from TIS. Otherwise there are fees charged on a time basis.

Immediate telephone interpreting service

Telephone 131 450 - the operator will connect you to the interpreter.

Other Services

TIS Help With Translating Service. You can pre-book either a telephone interpreter or an on-site visit. They also offer subscribers an automated telephone service for certain languages that is quicker and cheaper to use.

Help Us Improve

Please give us feedback about your experiences using Foolkit and ideas for improvements.

A shortcut that works with many programs is to hold down the CTRL key and at the same time to scroll the wheel on your mouse.

With Internet Browsers you can also hold down the CTRL key and press + at the same time to make make it bigger. If you hold down CTRL and - (minus key) then it makes it smaller. Holding down CTRL and pressing 0 (zero) sometimes makes it return to the original 100% size.

Alternatively, click on View in the menu of the browser and select Zoom / Magnification / Text size.

Read Text Aloud

ImTranslator is an Add-On for the Mozilla Firefox Browser. It is free.

It will read the text on a page in a variety of languages.

It will also provide written translations, spell check in a variety of languages and provide keyboard support for those languages.

Lawyers who speak other languages

The best legal advice is often from a lawyer who speaks their language.

You will be sure of good translation of the problem and then of the legal information. There are also the benefits that the client is likely to feel more comfortable with them and both sides will be aware of any cultural issues to be considered.

If you are looking for a private lawyer, then we recommend that you read our Choosing A Lawyer page. Often the best way to find a suitable lawyer is through personal contacts. Otherwise you can use the referral service mentioned by us on that page.